Coaching Tip Of The Week: Fast, Quick Motions Disguise a No-Spin Serve

July 13, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Many players learn to put decent spin on their serves. However, they often find it difficult to disguise that spin. Why not develop a no-spin serve, with a fast, violent serve motion? Change directions as the racket contacts the ball (contacting the ball as the racket is changing directions at the split […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: Training Down the Line

June 29, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) One of the lessons I learned from legends like Dan Seemiller and Dave Sakai was the value of down-the-line training. When you hit crosscourt, you have about ten feet and 3.5 inches. Down the line, it’s only nine feet, so 15.5 inches shorter. If you can maintain an aggressive down-the-line attack in […]

Coaching Tip Off The Week: Do You Really Have Control of Your Shots?

June 22, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Most players below the higher levels do not really control their shots, both in terms of direction and depth. One reason for this is they don’t really get much feedback on it, and so don’t realize just how little they are really controlling the ball. Another is that they aren’t really aiming […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: Practice Partner Collaboration – the PPC of TT

June 15, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) All sports involve collaboration, and table tennis is no exception. In fact, due to its one-on-one nature, table tennis in particular fits into this mode. One obvious collaboration is between coach and student, but there’s an equally important one – between playing partners. If you want to improve, players need to work […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: How to Never Miss an Easy Smash

June 8, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Few things are more frustrating than missing an easy smash that costs you a game or match. Especially under pressure, it’s easy to miss them. But if you follow three rules, you will never miss another one. Really! The three rules for never missing a smash are simple. Until the point is […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: Do You Have a Quadruple Threat Receive?

June 1, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Many players get used to receiving any given serve the same way, because it’s safer that way. This is especially true against short serves, where many players predictably push everything back long. Others reach in and predictably flip over and over. But this makes things easier for the server, since he knows […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Three Types of Anticipation

May 25, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) There are three main types of anticipation in table tennis. You develop all three by practice and observation. Often the key to all of these is to learn when your opponent has committed to what he’s doing, especially his direction, so you can anticipate and react to his shot earlier than if […]

Coaching Tip of The Week: Mind Games: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

May 18, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) There are mind games in all sports. Some are okay; others are not. The key difference is whether the mind game involves some sort of table tennis skill or tactic, as opposed to just finding ways to bother or even cheat the opponent. If an opponent plays mind games and it’s bad […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Five Ways to Take Away an Opponent’s Big Shot

May 11, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Attack first. Most attackers want to attack first. Push well. This means low, deep, heavy or varied, quick off the bounce, and to wide angles, with last-second changes of direction. Go to his strong side first, when you get to choose the shot. If his strong side is the forehand, then go […]

Coaching tip of the week: Don’t Practice Hesitation

May 4, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) To improve, it’s important to do footwork drills. Some are simple, such as side-to-side forehand-forehand drills. Others are more complicated. For example, you might do a drill that starts with your partner pushing to your backhand, you backhand (or forehand) loop to his backhand, and then he blocks to your forehand. Advanced […]